The United States refused to negotiate with Russia on the deployment of GLONASS navigation system on its territory, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. According to him, there are no negotiations being conducted on the subject.

“We made the statement in spring. I offered to initiate talks with the United States to deploy GLONASS infrastructure on their territory. For the time of the talks, we offered to suspend the existence of GPS stations infrastructure on the territory of the Russian Federation. The Americans, against the backdrop of sanctions, did not agree to conduct any negotiations. That is the question makes zero sense in terms of perspective,” Rogozin said, TASS reports.

As a result, he continued, Russian specialists technically excluded the possibility to use GPS stations on the Russian territory for military purposes.

“I will not expand on how we did it for obvious reasons, but we did it,” said Rogozin. “We do not want to cut off the nose to spite our face to deprive our users of the ability to work with GLONASS and GPS. Why should we create fewer opportunities for our own people? But we have completely destroyed any prospect, even an indirect one, for the use of the American navigation system for our high-precision guidance weapons,” said the official.

At the same time, it was reported that Russia and China would discuss possible joint projects in the field of space exploration. According to Rogozin, the two countries cooperate in the field of space, working on “possible joint projects in the field of space exploration.” The official said that China and Russia were having a “pretty tumultuous relationship,” and “we would like to say a big thank you to Western countries for their active development.”

Chief analyst at nonprofit partnership GLONASS, Andrei Ionin, in an interview with Pravda.Ru, commented the news on the USA’s refusal to negotiate the deployment of GLONASS satellite system on the American territory.

“As a result of the refusal, Russian experts have completely excluded the technical ability to use GPS stations for military purposes on the territory of Russia. Does it mean that common people can do it, but the military can not?”

“No, the question is slightly different. It will not affect the population – no one will ban GPS in Russia. Yet, it will create inconveniences for the American side, for the bodies that manage the GPS system. This is rather a political move. That is, to effectively manage a group, it is desirable to place stations throughout the Earth’s surface. The Americans decided that in the 1990s, placing some stations on the territory of Russia, although they were formally scientific stations. No one will ban these stations, but information from them will be coming to the US GPS control center with delays, which will bring a possibility of using this information for military purposes down to zero.

“That is, it will not affect either the civil population of Russia, the world or scientists. Moreover, this is a diplomatic step, because the Americans, in my opinion, had no reasons to refuse Russia in installing such stations on their territory.

“Both GPS and GLONASS are systems of dual purpose, used by civil populations all over the globe, regardless of the country and the purpose of that use. The signal is free, which is fixed at the highest level.

“In addition, of course, the systems are used for military purposes. Each of these systems have specific signals of increased accuracy and reliability that the military use.”